Last time I told you I already know what I will draw next for my new blog series Famous Movie Monsters. And here you can see one of my personal favorite movie monsters…By clicking on the image you can see a bigger version with a short MakingOf.
I already got some feedback and ideas for the next images in the series but if you still have a favorite you want to see write a comment to this post, name your movie monster and I will see what I can do…
Chris
To compare the performance of different approaches for handling large data I wrote a small test suite.
This application contains one test class (cDataHandlingTest) that writes to and reads from an abstract data class (iData). Each data class offers an unified interface but is implemented in different ways. The test class repeats each test several times, records initialization times and accessing times and then calculates the average for each data class. If you want to have a closer look on the code, you can download the FlashDevelop-project here. You can check out the test application at the end of the post.
Three-Dimensional Array (cDataArray3D)
This data class uses a three-dimensional array to store the data. Initialization takes a very long time because you need to cycle through several nested loops allocating the data. Access times are ok.
Linear Array (cDataArray1D)
Here I used a linear array for the data. Initialization for a linear area is lightning fast. The draw-back is the access, though. Calculating the offset of the data in the array is pretty complex:
var index:int = (((_y * m_width ) + _x) * m_entries) + _entryType;
This makes working with a linear array really slow if you cannot predict in what order you will access the data. If you will usually access the data in the exact order it is stored in the array, you would actually be really fast. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case. The linear array is about 10 times slower than the three-dimensional one on random access.
ByteArray Int-Based Access (cDataArrayByte)
In this example I used a ByteArray. The position is calculated in the exact same way as in the linear array example. Data is extracted by using a readInt() command on the stream, data is written by using the writeInt() command. I expected this approach to be really slow. Well it isn’t! On my computer it already outperforms the three-dimensional array in all areas. (It might not on others, though).
ByteArray Byte-Based Access (cDataArrayByteOpt)
If you only need values between 0 and 255 you can use the array operator [ ] of the ByteArray class. This is the fastest way to access the data. Initialization times are really good and access is on my computer about 25% faster than the three-dimensional array.
Test Application
This is the test. Click into the window to start. Be careful, it needs a lot of resources. If you have significantly less then 2GHz per core or only one core I recommend not to try it because it will lock up your computer for too long to be convenient.
I hope you didn’t take Manuels last blog post too serious.
Currently I’m working on a new series for the blog called Famous Movie Monsters. The series starts with Dracula (You know… the guy with the sharp teeth and sun allergy). By clicking on the image you can see a bigger version with a short MakingOf.
I know what to draw next, but if you have ideas, wishes, suggestions… feel free to add them in a comment to this post and who knows… maybe you can see your favorite movie monster here on our blog soon…
Best wishes and a happy easter!
With the first full-price browser-game title, Rough Sea sets out to redefine the standards in browser gaming. With a high four-figure budget and more than five interns they are bound to produce a straight shooter that will win the hearts of critics and gamers alike. So far, they have announced neither the title nor the setting of the game, but leading industry insiders suspect that it will probably have the word “Wars” in its title. CTO Bruno Schwarzritter of Schadenfreude Interactive GmbH says: “They’ll probably smash something together and then call it Something Wars “.
Some of the revolutionary new technical aspects are:
multi-platform support (even Linux, MacOS X and AmigaOS)
fully animated 3D progress bars
animated buttons with localized texts (that actually fit into them)
revolutionary summation algorithm to calculate any kind of specs correctly (even on Pentiums)
inbuilt automated grind management (as formerly seen only in big PC titles such as Progress Quest)
multi-account support
game-content that will fascinate players for weeks (like quests that last one week)
user-driven account management (everyone is an administrator)
user-created content (Rough Sea is not going to provide a lot)
root-kit based copy protection
The game will be released on DVD and bundled with a browser to play it with. Rough Sea Games is negotiating right now with several browser companies but have not yet determined which company will pay the most. To play the game the user will also have to have a working Internet connection for the spyware online activation to work properly.
[ Take the stuff out that I marked as "crossed out" or you will be fired. The rest of the article is ok, though. Ed.]
By clicking on the image you can see a bigger version with a short MakingOf.
